Health Care Survey Reveals Interesting Stats
Insights as to how employees and their dependents view health care is revealed in a new survey released by the National Business Group and performed by Hewitt. These insights are crucial for employers to recognize as they analyze their present and upcoming health care strategies. Help for prescription medicines is high on the list.
Despite the fact that employees say they know how to get in good physical shape, many aren’t taking action to do so. Most (84%) believe making good decisions in daily life leads to excellent overall health, and approximately three-quarters (72%) think good health is a result of getting regular preventive care. Only 46% of the workers surveyed reported doing a “great” or “good job” of regular working out and only about half of the employees think they do a “great” or good job” of eating healthy. To assist with the expensive prices of prescription medication, most employees surveyed ranked prescription program assistance extremely high.
In spite of high satisfaction in health programs, involvement remains low. Participation in a lot of employer provided health programs is not as high as many employers would like to see, even though employees and their dependents report that they know what they need to do to get and stay healthy. Biometric screenings are the most popular programs with online health information tools and health risk questionnaires following closely. Stress management programs and employee assistance programs (EAPs) were the least popular, with just nine percent participation in each. For employees that had dependent coverage, a prescription program was the number one satisfying benefit.
Financial motivation is a strong factor in participation but non financial, internal motivators can be just as valuable. Frequently, employers assume that providing monetary incentives for participating in programs will increase participation. Nearly half would complete a health-risk questionnaire (HRQ) without any incentive because it is “the right thing to do”. About 30% of the participants would complete a survey if there was a penalty for not doing so and an additional 30% would do it if there was a monetary incentive involved. In addition, 44% of the employees surveyed said they would be willing to take part in a wellness program provided by their employer because “it is the right thing to do”.
